[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4038 Introduced in House (IH)]







106th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4038

  To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to address the issue of 
 mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 
                    Africa, Asia, and Latin America.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 21, 2000

   Mr. Jackson of Illinois introduced the following bill; which was 
          referred to the Committee on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to address the issue of 
 mother-to-child transmission of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 
                    Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Mother-to-Child HIV Prevention Act 
of 2000''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) According to UNAIDS, nearly 4,500,000 children under 15 
        years of age have been infected with the human immunodeficiency 
        virus (HIV) since the AIDS epidemic began. More than 3,000,000 
        have already died of AIDS. Children are becoming infected at 
        about the rate of 1 child every minute, and the overwhelming 
        majority of these children acquire the infection from their 
        mothers.
            (2) The gap between rich and poor countries in terms of 
        transmission of HIV from mother to child has been increasing. 
        Moreover, AIDS threatens to reverse years of steady progress of 
        child survival in developing countries. UNAIDS believes that by 
        the year 2010, AIDS may have increased mortality of children 
        under 5 years of age by more than 100 percent in regions most 
        affected by the virus.
            (3) The discovery of a relatively simple and cheap means of 
        interrupting the transmission of HIV from an infected mother to 
        the unborn child--namely with nevirapine (NVP), which costs 
        US$4 a tablet--has created a great opportunity for an 
        unprecedented partnership between the United States Government 
        and the governments of Asian, African and Latin American 
        countries to combat mother-to-child transmission (also known as 
        ``vertical transmission'') of HIV.
            (4) According to UNAIDS, this strategy will decrease the 
        proportion of orphans that are HIV-infected and decrease infant 
        and child mortality rates in these developing regions.
            (5) USAID, UNAIDS, and UNICEF are engaged in 11 pilot 
        projects around the world. These studies will be completed 
        within the year, and the technical and ethical questions 
        associated with antiretroviral prevention strategies will be 
        mastered well enough in order for a significant increase in 
        scale to be undertaken.
            (6) Primary prevention strategies should remain the top 
        priority in the fight against AIDS and no funds should be 
        diverted away from it. Therefore, new funding for vertical 
        transmission should only be additive in nature. Once 
        appropriated, this funding will facilitate widespread delivery 
        of antiretroviral strategies to address the vertical 
        transmission problem.
            (7) New antiretroviral drug strategy can be a force for 
        social change, providing the opportunity and impetus needed to 
        tackle often long-standing problems of inadequate services and 
        the profound stigma associated with HIV-infection and the AIDS 
        disease. Strengthening the health infrastructure to improve 
        mother-and-child health, antenatal, delivery and postnatal 
        services, and couples counseling generates enormous spillover 
        effects toward combating the AIDS epidemic in developing 
        regions.

SEC. 3. ASSISTANCE FOR PREVENTION OF VERTICAL TRANSMISSION.

    Section 104(c) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
2151b(c)) is amended by adding at the end the following new paragraph:
    ``(4)(A) Congress recognizes the growing international dilemma of 
children with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the merits of 
intervention programs aimed at this problem. Congress further 
recognizes that mother-to-child transmission prevention strategies can 
serve as a major force for change in developing regions, and it is, 
therefore, a major objective of the foreign assistance program to 
control the AIDS epidemic. The agency primarily responsible for 
administering this part shall--
            ``(i) coordinate with UNAIDS, UNICEF, WHO, local 
        governments, and other organizations to develop and implement 
        effective strategies to prevent vertical transmission of HIV; 
        and
            ``(ii) coordinate with those organizations to increase in 
        scale intervention programs and introduce voluntary counseling 
        and testing, antiretroviral drugs, replacement feeding, and 
        other strategies more widely in due course.
    ``(B) In addition to amounts otherwise available for such purpose, 
there are authorized to be appropriated to the President, $25,000,000 
for each of the fiscal years 2001 through 2005 to be used to carry out 
this paragraph. Funds appropriated under this paragraph are authorized 
to remain available until expended.''.
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